INVASIVE SPECIES AND PLANT BIOSECURITY EDUCATION WITH A FOCUS ON REARING STINK BUGS (HEMIPTERA: PENTATOMIDAE) OF CONCERN TO FLORIDA By MORGAN PINKERTON A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2019 © 2019 Morgan Pinkerton To my mom and dad, for teaching me strength and providing unconditional love and support throughout my life. To the rest of my family and friends. Thank you for the motivation and help throughout my graduate school experience. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I would like to thank Dr. Amanda Hodges and Dr. Norman Leppla for their guidance and support throughout my master’s project. The youth outreach work was supported by two years of USDA-APHIS-PPQ Farm Bill funding (FY2016 Cooperative Agreement Number 16-8212-2065 and FY2017 Award Number AP17PPQFO000C240). Piezodorus guildinii research was funded in part by Bayer Crop Sciences, as of 2018 known as BASF, and the Biosecurity Research and Extension Laboratory. I would like to thank Jennifer Carr, Harry Edwards, Trevor Forsberg, Alexander Fernandez, and Ryan Dick for their assistance in rearing the colony of P. guildinii and aid in data collection for experiments. Additionally, I thank Sage Thompson, Brianna Whitman, and Cleveland Ivey for support rearing and with data collection for the B. hilaris colony and experiments. I would like to thank Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services-Division of Plant Industry for allocation of space in their quarantine facility to rear Bagrada hilaris and perform experiments. I would especially like to thank Phillip Lake and David Davidson for assistance with quarantine procedures and questions. I would also like to thank Dr. John Palumbo for collecting and sending live B. hilaris specimens to establish the colony. I wish to thank all the middle and high school teachers that allowed for us to give guest lectures on invasive species and plant biosecurity to their students. I also thank the schools that hosted us as well as the parents that gave us permission to survey their children. I thank the students that participated in the outreach events and surveying. I thank Nicole Casuso for her development and leadership during the first year of the youth outreach program. I would like to thank Sage Thompson for her assistance with outreach events and Ariane McCorquodale for the development of the website for the 4 outreach program. I thank Craig Frey for his continuation of the youth outreach program to more schools and students in the future. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 9 LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ 10 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................... 13 Importance of Invasive Species and Plant Biosecurity Education ........................... 13 Invasive Species and Plant Biosecurity ............................................................ 13 Impacts of Invasive Species on Florida ............................................................ 13 Public Outreach and Education ........................................................................ 15 Laboratory Reared Insects Emphasizing Stink Bugs .............................................. 16 Challenges of Rearing Insects in the Laboratory .............................................. 16 History of Stink Bugs as Pests ......................................................................... 20 The Redbanded Stink Bug, Piezodorus guildinii ..................................................... 21 Geographic Distribution of Piezodorus guildinii ................................................ 21 Hosts and Damage ........................................................................................... 22 Identification ..................................................................................................... 23 Life History ....................................................................................................... 24 Rearing Methods .............................................................................................. 24 Control Methods ............................................................................................... 26 Bagrada hilaris ........................................................................................................ 27 Geographic Distribution of Bagrada hilaris ....................................................... 27 Hosts and Damage ........................................................................................... 28 Identification ..................................................................................................... 29 Life History ....................................................................................................... 31 Rearing Methods .............................................................................................. 32 Control Methods ............................................................................................... 33 2 ENGAGING FLORIDA’S YOUTH TO INCREASE THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF INVASIVE SPECIES AND PLANT BIOSECURITY ................................................ 36 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 36 Expected Outcomes ............................................................................................... 38 Purpose ............................................................................................................ 38 Objectives ......................................................................................................... 39 Materials and Methods............................................................................................ 39 Audience .......................................................................................................... 39 Outreach Events ............................................................................................... 39 6 Surveys ............................................................................................................ 43 Results .................................................................................................................... 44 Student’s Comfort Level ................................................................................... 44 Student’s Knowledge Level .............................................................................. 45 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 46 3 LABORATORY REARING OF THE REDBANDED STINK BUG, Piezodorus guildinii (WESTWOOD) ........................................................................................... 51 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 51 Materials and Methods............................................................................................ 53 Colony Source .................................................................................................. 53 Cages ............................................................................................................... 54 Conditions ........................................................................................................ 54 Diet ................................................................................................................... 55 Rearing Procedure ........................................................................................... 55 Experiment 1: Preference of Oviposition Substrate .......................................... 56 No-choice ................................................................................................... 56 Choice ........................................................................................................ 57 Experiment 2: Identification of Size Disparities in Successive Generations of Laboratory Reared Piezodorus guildinii ........................................................ 57 Results and Discussion........................................................................................... 58 Experiment 1: Preference of Oviposition Substrate .......................................... 58 No-choice ................................................................................................... 58 Choice ........................................................................................................ 59 Experiment 2: Identification of Size Disparities in Successive Generations of Laboratory Reared Piezodorus guildinii ........................................................ 59 Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 60 4 LABORATORY REARING OF THE BAGRADA BUG, Bagrada hilaris (BURMEISTER) ...................................................................................................... 65 Introduction ............................................................................................................